Love Hurts
by Addster
Summary: "You got off easy. You should have seen Air Temple Island after Tenzin broke up with me." A quick Linzin break up drabble because Peace Keepers blew my mind.


**Holy crud-zookies, how long has it been since I've uploaded a story on here?! Incredibly too long! I miss it here! :) Alrighty, quick story of the infamous break up and destruction of Air Temple Island at the hand of Lin's beautiful wrath.**

**Good god I love her too much.**

* * *

"Tenzin, son," Katara began, wringing her hands as she looked over her son. "Are you sure you want to go through with this?"

Tenzin's blue eyes met his mother's with shaky certainty as he swallowed the lump in his throat. He nodded, but the rest of his body didn't seem to agree with his bobbing head. He stiffened his back, straightened his robes, and cleared his throat.

"Yes, mother. I can't put this off any longer. Today is the day."

Katara shivered as her youngest son walked out of the sun drenched hallway and out onto the training pavilion of Air Temple Island. When he met the person standing calmly outside, he looked confident enough from the back, with his shoulders straight and his head high. But the intuition Katara gained the day her children were born tugged at a string in her head telling her other wise.

And of course, she was right.

She just hoped she'd still have a house to live in when all was said and done.

* * *

"To the best of my abilities," and I pride myself on the extent of my abilities, "I cannot come to any other conclusion than the one I have reached."

My throat became dry when I caught her gaze. Oh my, oh my, I told myself I wouldn't look into her eyes. I'll just try to look away. There, that wasn't too bad.

"Why aren't you looking at me when you speak, Tenzin?"

Like always, her words cut at my skin like knives. Suddenly I felt my robes getting heavier and thicker under the blaring sun, and I cursed myself for thinking formal robes would be appropriate for an occasion such as this. I started to feel sweat run down my back, and my neck was stifling in my collar. Why was it so blazing hot?

"I'm sorry, Lin, I'm not very rehearsed in this area of conversation."

She uncrossed her arms and shifted her weight to the other hip, and she planted her feet firmly to the ground.

She's on to me.

I can feel it.

She's getting mad, she already knows.

Oh spirits.

"And what kind of conversation renders such a windbag like you speechless?"

Mother was right; I should have done this in front of witnesses.

"It's just, well, Lin…" she keeps staring at me, so much so it almost hurts physically. Why was this so hard? I have been rehearsing this for days know, I have been considering every possible outcome and situation and what steps to take to control them, and yet here I am losing my footing right at the very beginning!

Just breathe, Tenzin, feel the air.

Lin is reasonable enough.

"Lin, I think it would be best for the both of us if we let this relationship end."

Mother never taught me what a heart attack feels like, and that might be bad because I think I'm having one right now. My chest actually hurts from my throbbing heart. I think I have a cracked rib. Why isn't she saying anything?

Lin please stop looking at me like that.

Please?

"What did you say?"

I tried not to look surprised, but my emotions are as wild as a flying lemur on cactus juice.

Her voice quivered.

Not a little shake.

Not a little crack.

The whole sound was like listening to someone talk through a fan.

She was trying not to cry.

"Tenzin, I want you to say that again. Look at me when you say it."

Her cheeks were turning red and her bottom lip was starting to tremble, and I couldn't help but see her mother's face in her own when she got upset. Her jade eyes became watery and the muscles in her jaw flexed as she tried keeping her mouth shut and her emotions back.

That was the face of a woman who deserved my full empathy.

"I'm sorry Lin, we're not working out."

I heard the breath in her lungs hiss through her nose as she took a step away from me. She didn't say anything, and that's never a good sign from Lin. I couldn't tell if she was crying because she had stepped into the shade of a tree, and I couldn't hear her crying so I nodded, turned away, and left.

She didn't say a word to me as I left, and I couldn't help but shake this ominous feeling that sank to the bottom of my stomach as I made my way to the dock. But Lin was a big girl -as Aunt Toph always made a point of mentioning- who was tough enough to deal with it properly.

I did the right thing.

* * *

Let it burn out? What the flameo is that supposed to mean? Let it burn out like a fire? Please, he was flattering himself! This relationship was no "_burning flame" _that needed to die out. The only hot thing left in this relationship was the heat that reflected of his baldhead in the sun.

He must be going stupid from not having hair to protect his brain. Yes, that must be it.

For some strange reason there was water on my face, and as I looked up at the sky, I had trouble finding any kind of storm cloud with potential to produce moisture. This sudden precipitation near my eyes puzzled me.

But no matter, it was trivial in the face of the mission at hand.

I had a job to do.

I slipped out of my shoes and put them in a safe place near the trunk of the tree I stood under, and began to walk across the paved pavilion of the training area. I remember when Uncle Aang had the groundwork laid, because mother had brought me along to have me watch how she could finish the project ten times as fast as Twinkle Toes. She gracefully made her way to the middle of the untamed area, took a breath, and slammed her foot to the grass and bent the area into solid earth.

The nice stonework covered the earth, and I always admired how Uncle Aang had laid each stone down by hand in a perfect circular pattern with little mistakes. He told me he knew every curve of the symbol of the air nomads like the back of his hand, and that he could do this with his eyes closed.

Now I'm about the same age as mother when she flattened the land, and so for all intents and purposes, I should be able to do the same, if not more.

I came to a stop at the center of the paved platform and took a deep breath. And yet again, I noticed mysterious precipitation on my face that continued to baffle me.

But again, it was no matter.

With a swift and graceful stomp of the foot, I came down on the stones. With my eyes closed, I could _see _underneath the stone and into the earth below, and how easily it would bend.

Pillars of brown stone and earth shot up all around me like towers, spilling dirt and debris around like rain. My anger seemed to escape my chest just as the earth did the confines of the stone above it.

That felt good.

"_Lin!" _

I rolled my eyes and stood up straight as Katara rushed off the porch and weaved between the jutting pillars.

"Lin, honey, please don't destroy the house!" she came up to me and put her hands on my shoulders. Lately I had noticed she had gotten a little shorter, or I had gotten taller, and I had to look down at her to meet her eyes. Her cheeks were red and her eyes were wide as she took in the abrupt change in landscaping.

"I would never destroy your home, Aunt Katara, that would be _impulsive._"

I couldn't help but feel more meaning in that word than what was meant.

Everybody adored him because he was _so confident! _He was so _levelheaded in any situation; he always knows what to do! _Those people have no idea what kind of a petulant baby he can be behind closed doors.

"Lin, honey, let me make you some tea."

I could feel her pulling me into the house, but I had no awareness of what was physically happening to my body as I absently followed her.

He thought it would be best for us to _burn out_. What does that even mean? For the longest time, his pants had been on fire with the thought of repopulating the air bending population. Why did he think I had to be just as excited for so many children as he was? Why was it that the thought of having children, rather than being happy with me, that forced him to be in this relationship?

Why did I have to be his prized incubator?

By the time I came back to my senses, Katara had dragged me into the living room and sat me on the couch and was nervously patting my cheek.

"Are you okay now, dear?"

I turned my head to face her and saw the worry starting to settle in the new lines in her face while her eyes watched me carefully. I tried to open my mouth, but my jaw was clenched so tightly it felt locked. I took another deep breath and unclenched my fists.

Tenzin had broken up with me.

That was that.

And that was all there would be about it.

And that was okay.

"Here's the tea."

I took a sip, but let it backwash back into the tiny cup. There was too much sugar, and it reminded me of how unreasonably sweet Tenzin preferred his tea.

That bastard.

"I have to use the restroom."

Because of previous late nights with Tenzin, I had inextricable knowledge of every twist and turn of the house and I knew exactly where _his _room would be. I took a left down the sunlit hallway and passed Bumi and Kya's rooms. With my feet still bare, the vibrations rebounded from inside his room and back to me.

It was empty.

I saw his bed. The lavish, king-sized bed made for at least three people, the exorbitant bed he did not need nor did he appreciate was in the center of his room near the window. It was a confortable bed. It was very soft yet firm when it counted, and it was the same bed I had lost my virginity in.

I would not leave until it had been destroyed.

I slid into the horse stance; feet firmly planted on the wooden floor, raised my foot, and brought it down. My foot smashed through the wood floor but like a tidal wave smashing against me, a slab of rock shot up in the middle of Tenzin's bedroom and shot his bed up against the ceiling.

I could hear it smash and crack into pieces, and I pulled the slab back down and then raised another one. This time, it came from an angle that speared the mattress right through the center and threw it to the other side of the room.

I could hear pictures falling off the walls and lamps shattering and wood cracking, and it was as soothing as listening to music.

And then I remembered the window.

Turning on my heels, I focused my center of balance in line with where the mattress lay, and I jumped forward and felt the shove of earth rise up from the ground. It speared the mattress and sent it crashing through the window and down near the docks.

The sudden precipitation on my face was now a fine sheen of sweat, and that was the best kind of precipitation one could ask for. I caught my breath, walked past an aghast Katara, and straight out of the house.

Now I was confident Tenzin would have trouble getting a rebound into bed.

* * *

I have been doing manual labor for days now.

My mother has not stopped yelling at me for breaking up with Lin.

All of the air acolytes giggle when I walk by.

Toph has not stopped laughing.

I still do not have a new bed.

* * *

**This relationship has always fascinated me because we don't really know why they broke up, but the main reason floating around is that Lin didn't want children, but Tenzin did. And that's a really important issue in a relationship. And I've always wondered if Tenzin was callous or terse about it with Lin, as if she had worn out her use to him and he put her aside like a broken toy. Even though this is supposed to be humorous, I still dwell on that thought.**


End file.
